Advice

Fermec2

Hi All, I Know this is a Pretty Vague Question, but Here goes. Well iv a Few Questions i want yer Opinion on. We are Farming 145 acres all in one Block ,Heavy Soil, With 25 acres Reclaimed, So this Ground has to be Minded.Currently Milking 70 Cows, but are out of Silage & Buying Expensive Bales, Cows are out by day. I Want to Know whats the Max Stocking Rate or most Profitable System we can Run? Without Renting extra Land etc, on this Block?. Or am i doing somthing Wrong that we are outa Silage allready.?. Also If i were to Employ someone ,What wage would i be Able to Afford to Pay? I Can get an Apprentice for about 350 Euro a Week. , Would this be Too Much to be Paying out & Would Profits Suffer. I Know what ye are Saying , What the Hell does he Need Help for! Its a Simple Setup to manage by one Person, But im the Kinda Person that Works better with someone, My setup is Pretty good, 8 Unit Parlour, 75 Cubicles Auto Scrapers etc, Machiney is good,. About me.. Mid 30s, Farming With Parents who are in there 7O,s , Im In a Relationship, but its early days,, Need to Build a House, But No Loans , Debt, On the Farm etc. All Opinions Answers, Solutions, Greatly Appreciated. Thanks For Reading.
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kevthegaff

id try work on your own maybe some relief during spring and weekends but it adds up a fulltime labour unit.

Timmaay

Are you in a discussion group? If not would be a decent place to start. 145 acres should be enough to keep the 70cows and follower once you run a tight ship, obvious exceptions being the likes of 2012, but with last years summer, a heavy farm should have been well able to make plenty enough silage. How long is your grazing season in any case? This is the 1st port of call in my view, any extension of it will reduce silage, and help milk production. Harder to do on a wet farm granted, but most farms have some few dry paddocks, the aim should be to hold some cover over the winter on these and get cows out as early as possible on them. Having them reseeded helps also, fresh reseeds tend to grow more on the shoulder months.

The other thing to do, and I haven't managed it this year, is to carry a rolling stock of say 150 bales, or 1/2 a pit of silage, this will be a buffet in the case of late springs/droughts etc, will save you the need to buy in expensive fodder, which you'll be at the mercy of the market prices.

The final thing I'll say is I sure as sh&te would not be buying in grass silage for milking cows unless my back was really against the wall, as one of the other posts here use to say, silage is like poison to fresh lactating cows, just not enough energy in it, and most farmers selling silage are most certainly not selling their good (<75dmd) silage. Could you feed more meal instead?

Fermec2

Fair Enough, But as they say, You Cant Take it with you, & the Free time would be Nice, Also you could probably Trust someone thats full time alot better, if you had to go for a weeks holidays or even the ploughing match for a Day!. I Know its about 15,000 a year , Which is a Lot, & would do alot on the Farm for you,but itsTax Deductable aswell, Which helps a bit.

Fermec2

Hi Timmaay, You Make some good points, i was ina Discussion Group, but found it the same old thing all the Time, Teagasc Telling us we should be Making Less Silage etc, You dont Know if all the Guys in the Group are Telling the Truth either! Iv Some Good Friends who are Great for advice,. I was only thinking that This Morning about Giving the Cows More Meal, But the Silage i bought is More for the Cows Left to Calf, 52 Calved & about 15 to go. i still have about a Week Left of Nice first cut for Milkers, Grass is very Short & Green this Time of Year, & i think they Need the Roughage. Yes a Buffer will defently have to be sourced, & have it in the Yard For When Needed. Would buying it Growing During the Summer be the Best Way to do This? . By the Way, We Do All Bales here, Just Suites our System Better, As we can do Some of the Work our Selves. plus no Waste, Made 470 Dry Bales Last Year, Which i thought was Plenty!, Our Grazing Season Can Vary, But Cows uaually out Early Feb, to Mid to Late October, The Ground Needs the Rest . We Reseed about 12 to 15 acres every year, Which i Know Probably isnt Enough. But Old Swards poach Less. But also Grow Less i know.

Farmer Pudsey

Fermec if you can generally graze from mid February to late October land can not be too bad. In reality after 80 cows you need a second stockman is what a few dairy farmers said to me. Aprentices from other threads can be hit and miss.

470 bales is not a lot for seventy cows and followers. It equates to less than 50-55 acres of silage at 8/acre if a few strong paddocks are taken out as well. 12-15 acre means that you are reseeding whole farm every 10-12 years in my book it is enough. How is your land fertility is it producing to a fairly high level.

I am not sure would i buy a buffer in advance if you buy you might feel the need to feed it. I think that you should build up a buffer if 100-150 bales. If you do it yourself you can put extra plastic on these and feed first the following year. I be inclined to set a plan in place in case you get caught at spring or at any stage for feed. Specify mix that will generally match your bales. When you are short feed buy it in. You may only need this every 2-3 years why buy and store a feed that you may not need but have to feed.

No point in complicating a system with buying in for an event that with the amount of land-cow you have that you should not need. Consider reseeding some fields for a 2-3 cut system to keep overall pressure of grazing block.

Fermec2

Hi Farmer Paudsey, Yes i see what your Saying, But i guess were Still Recovering From the Wet 2012.We had to Reseed 13 acres Last Spring because of Poaching, Which i Know is the Wrong Time of Year to do This,. But at Least that will be Back in Circulation for this year. As regards Building up a Surplus, id Like to be Able to do this Myself at home, as this is the Cheapest way to do this. When you Say cut a 2- 3 Cut System, Does this mean Planting a Fast Growing Grasseed? ,& i Assume you Also mean not to Graze this at all?..

crackcrack30

Ignore me as I know nothing about dairy but could you........ reduce your herd number by 10 with therefore less pressure on ground & for silage & negating the need for a 15k labour bill... & less issue with reseeding schedule.


business is business regardless of module.. sometimes I feel like a busy fool, but this usually has to be pointed out to me ......because I'm so busy

whitebriar

No loans,no debt,no borrowing at all at the moment? You must be paying a lot of tax.

My advice is not to over think things,do not break what is already working.
Stick at what you are doing for now.
You don't have to get bigger and better.
There's some good points made here but Relax,you are doing ok.

You and your parents know what your land can carry,stay always a tad under that.
Do what Timmay says and use that tad under to have those extra silage stocks.
Any farmer I know doing that ain't doing too bad.

Make the farm work for you now not the other way round,it's the engine that will help you to do the things in life you want to do.
You're in prime position now to not make big mistakes.
Remember there's people ,new entrants,spending and borrowing a lot to get where you already are.

kevthegaff

The main reason for me is getting upto 100 cows + is i have my loans down to a resonable amount and i want to be able to get a lad in whenever i want for spare time, u need to see what suits you

dzer2

I presume you are soil testing before every reseed. Coming from heavy ground myself and after spending 15 yrs upgrading the farm the most pressing element for us was lime and tonnes of it. up to 10 tonnes per acre in some places. What really worked for us was we never spread any field for silage but took out paddocks as they got too strong to graze. It ended up with us making silage from early May to late sept but we always had enough and even some to sell in good yrs. We always closed of the driest fields in mid to late Oct and put out a shake of N to help growth. Every yr we would have milkers out by 13th Feb and all out by 17 march it was like a religion here. Just on your numbers we were stocked at 1 lu per 1.5 arce From your numbers you will be low on natural manure which wont be helping fertility of the soil. We find that a light spread of slurry after a graze and a small amount of fert really drives on grass allowing paddocks that got strong to be taken out.Also you need to be on the ball with spreading fert after grazzing we had a small fert spreader on a nuffield for this job as soon as the cows were in the parlour the father woukld be out spreading. Also in a wet yr we would only graze for a few hours a day this saved the poaching on the field.

Farmer Pudsey

Fermec on wet or heavy ground soil fertility is key. P is critical it leeches out of the ground. Yes I suggest an Hybrid maybe with red clover. It will need a lot of P+K and the right ph. However over a growing season it is capable of growing 25-30 bales/acre . Some of this will be top quality, some lads go for four cuts however as it will head around the 20th of May I cut at this stage(last year 11.5 [EMAIL="bales/acre@40DM"]bales/acre@40DM[/EMAIL] and 73dmd no red clover in it this is my first year trying) after that I cut in early/mid july( it always heads out after the first cut) often get a haylage type product at 7 bales/acre and the final cut in mid september. I graze with weanlings or light year and a halfs in november

Fermec2

Thanks for all Advice Folks, Alot to Take in, But Really putting me @ Ease tho. but Defently one thing iv Fallen down on is Soil Testing over the Last Number of Years, When Reeseeding we just Give 2 Tonnes of Lime to the Acre & 18-6-12 or 10-10-20, Lazy i Know. id Be Very interested in Trying A Hybred type Grass seed allright, or RVP As i Remmember Growing up, My Grass seed Sales Man is good on His Job so i Might Question him, Am i Right in Saying you Dont get as Long out of these? maybe 3-5 Years?.. Generally when We Reseed its a Long Term investment Like 7-10 years. As Regards my Tax Situation, iv only the Farm in my Name in the Last 15 Months or so!, So between Legal Fees, The Wet 2012, & iv been doing alot around the Yard, New Shed Covering Parlour Yard, New Bulk Tank, & Parlour yard Tank. . My Tax Bill Has Been around 6,ooo Euro. The Parents were able to Earn up to 55,ooo Tax Free Because of there age before this, So Because im a Young Single Farmer, I Know im Gonna Have to Watch this now.